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For he is superstitious grown of late;
Quite from the main opinion he held once
Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.
It may be these apparent prodigies,
The unaccustomed terror of this night.
And the persuasion of his augurers,
May hold him from the Capitol to-day.

Dec. Never fear that. If he be so resolved,
I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils, and men with flatterers:
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does; being then most flattered.
Let me work:

For I can give his humour the true bent,
And I will bring him to the Capitol.

Cas. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.

Bru. By the eighth hour: is that the uttermost? Cin. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then. Met. Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard, Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey : I wonder none of you have thought of him.

Bru. Now, good Metellus, go along by him. He loves me well, and I have given him reasons: Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him.

Cas. The morning comes upon us. We'll leave you, Brutus :

And, friends, disperse yourselves: but all remember

What you have said, and shew yourselves true Romans.

Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily: Let not our looks put on our purposes: But bear it, as our Roman actors do, With untired spirits and formal constancy : And so, good-morrow to you every one. [Exeunt all but BRUTUS. Boy: Lucius!-Fast asleep! It is no matter: Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber. Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, Which busy care draws in the brains of men : Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.

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You stared upon me with ungentle looks:
I urged you further; then you scratched your
head,

And too impatiently stamped with your foot:
Yet I insisted, yet you answered not;
But, with an angry wafture of your hand,
Gave sign for me to leave you: so I did;
Fearing to strengthen that impatience
Which seemed too much enkindled; and withal
Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
Which sometime hath his hour with every man.
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep:
And could it work so much upon your shape
As it hath much prevailed on your condition,
I should not know you, Brutus. Dear, my lord,
Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
Bru. I am not well in health, and that is
all. *

Por. Brutus is wise, and were he not in health

He would embrace the means to come by it.

Bru. Why, so I do.-Good Portia, go to bed. Por. Is Brutus sick; and is it physical To walk unbracéd, and suck up the humours Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick; And will he steal out of his wholesome bed To dare the vile contagion of the night, And tempt the rheumy and unpurgéd air To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus; You have some sick offence within your mind, Which, by the right and virtue of my place, I ought to know of: and upon my knees I charm you, by my once-commended beauty, By all your vows of love, and that great vow Which did incorporate and make us one, That

you unfold to me,-yourself, your half,— Why you are heavy; and what men to-night Have had resort to you: for here have been Some six or seven, who did hide their faces Even from darkness. Bru.

Kneel not, gentle Portia.
Por. I should not need, if you were gentle
Brutus.

Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
But, as it were, in sort or limitation :

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

Bru. You are my true and honourable wife:
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.

Por. If this were true, then should I know this

secret.

I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman that lord Brutus took to wife:
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman well-reputed,-Cato's daughter.
Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
Being so fathered and so husbanded?

Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose them:
I have made strong proof of my constancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here in the thigh. Can I bear that with patience,
And not my husband's secrets?
O ye gods,

Bru.

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knocking within.

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Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.— Boy, stand aside.-Caius Ligarius! how?

Lig. Vouchsafe good-morrow from a feeble tongue.

Bru. O what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,

To wear a kerchief! 'Would you were not sick. Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,

Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.

Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, I here discard my sickness. Soul of Rome! Brave son, derived from honourable loins! Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible; Yea, get the better of them. What's to do? Bru. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.

Lig. But are not some whole that we must

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SCENE II.-The same. A Room in CESAR'S Palace.

Thunder and lightning. Enter CESAR, in his night-gown.

Cæs. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night:

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out, "Help, ho! they murder Cæsar!"-Who's within? Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord?

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Cal. What mean you, Cæsar? Think you to walk forth?

You shall not stir out of your house to-day. Cæs. Cæsar shall forth. The things that threatened me

Ne'er looked but on my back: when they shall see The face of Cæsar, they are vanished.

Cal. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies; Yet now they fright me. There is one within (Besides the things that we have heard and seen) Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch. A lioness hath whelpéd in the streets; And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead:

Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol :

The noise of battle hurtled in the air;
Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.

Cæs. What can be avoided,
Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Cæsar shall go forth for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Cæsar.

Cal. When beggars die there are no comets seen: The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of

princes.

Cæs. Cowards die many times before their deaths:

The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should
fear:

Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Re-enter Servant.

[Exeunt.

What say the augurers?

Serv. They would not have you to stir forth to-day.

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast.
Cæs. The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Cæsar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to day for fear.
No, Cæsar shall not. Danger knows full well
That Cæsar is more dangerous than he.
We were two lions littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible:
And Cæsar shall go forth.

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Here's Decius Brutus: he shall tell them so. Dec. Cæsar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cæsar:

I come to fetch you to the senate-honse.

Cæs. And you are come in very happy time, To bear my greeting to the senators, And tell them that I will not come to-day. Cannot is false; and that I dare not, falser. I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius. Cal. Say he is sick. Cæs. Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far, To be afeard to tell greybeards the truth? Decius, go tell them Cæsar will not come. Dec. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some

cause,

Shall Cæsar send a lie?

Lest I be laughed at when I tell them so.
Cæs. The cause is in my will; I will not come.
That is enough to satisfy the senate :
But for your private satisfaction,
Because I love you, I will let you know:
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statue,
Which, like a fountain with a hundred spouts,

Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans

Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
And these does she apply for warnings, portents,
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begged that I will stay at home to-day.
Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted:
It was a vision fair and fortunate:
Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck

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And know it now:-the senate have concluded
To give this day a crown to mighty Cæsar.
If you shall send them word you will not come,
Their minds may change. Besides, it were a
mock

Apt to be rendered, for some one to say,
"Break up the senate till another time
WhenCæsar's wife shall meet with better dreams."
If Cæsar hide himself, shall they not whisper,
"Lo, Cæsar is afraid?"

Pardon me, Cæsar: for my dear, dear love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this;
And reason to my love is liable.

Cæs. How foolish do your fears seem now,
Calphurnia?

I am ashamed I did yield to them.—
Give me my robe, for I will go :-
And look where Publius is come to fetch me.

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Bru.

Cæsar, 't is strucken eight.
Cas. I thank you for your pains and courtesy.
Enter ANTONY.

See! Antony, that revels long o' nights,
Is notwithstanding up :-good-morrow, Antony.
Ant. So to most noble Cæsar.
Cæs. Bid them prepare within:

I am to blame to be thus waited for.-
Now, Cinna: now, Metellus: what, Trebonius!
I have an hour's talk in store for you:
Remember that you call on me to-day:
Be near me, that I may remember you.
Treb. Cæsar, I will :—and so near will I be,
[Aside.
That your best friends shall wish I had been
further.

Cæs. Good friends, go in, and taste some wine

with me;

And we, like friends, will straightway go together. Bru. That every like is not the same, O Cæsar, The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon!

[Exeunt.

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Por. Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him?

Sooth. None that I know will be; much that
I fear may chance.

Good-morrow to you. Here the street is narrow :
The throng that follows Cæsar at the heels,
Of senators, of prætors, common suitors,
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:
I'll get me to a place more void, and there
Speak to great Cæsar as he comes along. [Exit.
Por. I must go in.-Ah me, how weak a thing
The heart of woman is! O Brutus,

The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise !
Sure the boy heard me :-Brutus hath a suit
That Cæsar will not grant.-O, I grow faint!-
Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord:
Say I am merry. Come to me again,

And bring me word what he doth say to thee.

[Exeunt.

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